I don't read fan fiction. Not for comics, not for movies, not for television. I think it's fine that people write it, and I certainly have no objection to folks building personally on an existing cultural mythology in that way, but for me, if it's not explicitly "canon"--in the sense that anyone who read/viewed the original material would know it--it doesn't appeal to me. (Hell, I don't even like the Ultimate universe, and historically I dislike DC's Elseworlds, although I suppose I might change my mind on that given their shiny new Multiverse.)
It has nothing to do with quality. I've read fan fiction, generally at someone else's request ("hey, I just wrote this, would you take a look?"), and some of it is very good, has plotting and characterization the equal of what you'd find in a comic you bought or a television show you watched. That's not the point.
Of course there is some execrable fan fiction as well, and while comics and movies and television can be execrable as well, when fan fiction is bad, it is often bad in its own particular ways, ways that point to the fact that this sort of fan fiction really isn't about the story--it's about authorial fantasy fulfillment. For example, characters act oddly or are put into situations clearly aimed at getting them to do something out of character. And that's fine. I won't be reading it ('course I won't be reading the good stuff either :)) but it's fine--plenty of people love it, to each their own, live and let live, right?
Occasionally, though, you read or view something that makes you wonder whether the writer is also a fan. One assumes, of course, that many comic writers are also fans--why would you seek employment in that field unless you had some sort of appreciation for at least the general medium? But one also assumes that if someone is getting paid to write a story, they are writing it for others, not in order to bring their own personal fan sense to paper (or film, or video), or to cater to particular fan preferences they may be aware of without regard for existing history or characterization, and with a certain amount of objectivity with regard to the story working.
And I'm not going to point to any specific instances within comics because I'm not writing this where my comics are, so I don't have them available to cite. (I will say that I've been watching Torchwood lately, and I like it a lot overall, but occasionally they'll have a moment where I wonder just who that bit was written for.) But that thing you see sometimes, where someone comments positively on some bit from a comic, saying that the writer must surely have been reading the internet--that's not a good thing. We don't like it when a comic writer does their darnedest to bring things back in line with whatever comic era they grew up with or eliminates a character based on personal dislike, we don't like it when a comic clearly caters to a particular subgroup of fans to the detriment of the story, and we shouldn't like it when our own preferences are given too much weight either.
1 comment:
I worte TV fan fic for 15 years, and I even wrote a couple of comics fan fic stories for the Teen Titans APA (Amateur Press Association). I never wrote my fantasies or wish fulfillment. I wrote the stories I wanted to see, further adventures and character development pieces.
I've also been trying to finish a science fiction novel for a few years now, and have been writing fiction for close to 30 years. I also "hang out" online with pro and amateur writers on message boards and usenet.
There are writers who write primarily for an audience and are good at it. There are writers who can write within guidelines (comics, tv, licensed tie-in novels and adaptations) in which they must follow a bible set down by someone else, and are good at it. I tend to not be one of them. I write for me and hope people enjoy it.
From all the writers I've encountered, the ones who are pros say it's hard to sell something you weren't passionate about writing. You have to please yourself first.
There's a difference between writing for yourself that will appeal to a larger audience and writing your personal fantasies, although some of those fantasies will appeal to others.
Writers who are successful pros learn how to temper fantasies and in comics, they need to learn how to build on what's been written, keep to a greater plan, maintain a content rating (age appropriate), etc. But that doesn't mean they don't slip in stuff just for themselves, or for a friend who might be the only one to "get it." And writers do that because it's fun.
And sometimes, a writer just makes a mistake no one catches. I think it was Tony Bedard who made a few mistakes (obvious to regular readers) on his first BoP story.
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